First point for Caversham

Caversham secured their first point of the season in a competitive and enjoyable game against an experienced Maidenhead team. In what was Caversham's first home game of the season, they knew it was going to be competitive game against a team that has been well established in division 1 for a number of years. Caversham withstood early pressure with an organised defensive line of Leah, Anna, Martha and Olivia and always looked dangerous with Evie and Daisy leading the forward line. With Lianna showing great skill on the left wing it was she who threaded a diagonal pass for Grace to lay the ball onto Daisy who timed her run to perfection and chinked the ball past the on-coming keeper. It was a fantastic finish to complete the best move of the game and opened Daisy's account for the season.

However, Caversham's joy was short lived as Maidenhead's stand-out #12 took the ball down the line, powered through the defence and slammed her shot into the bottom corner for a spectacular solo effort. Maud swapped in for Izzy with specific instructions to mark out the #12 and her player of the match award was recognition for doing the perfect job as this obvious threat as neutralised. Leonie swapped in for Leah and Niamh for Olivia and Caversham looked comfortable for the remainder of the half.

At the other end Ruby was having another outstanding game on the right wing as she ran the Maidenhead left back ragged for most of the 70 minutes. With Izzy returning to replace Lianna, who was struggling with a hip injury, found Ruby who opened up the defence with a ball to Daisy, who laid the ball for Evie. Evie's shot struck the keeper, but she was on hand to finish the rebound to ensure Caversham went into half-time 2-1 up. A knock to Martha saw Caversham take the field in the second half with a makeshift defence and almost immediately there was confusion when they failed to deal with a harmless ball into the box and were punished with the equaliser. A well taken 3rd soon followed and suddenly there was concern Caversham might cave in.

Martha and Lianna returned, the defence got organised, the midfield dug in and Caversham played their best football to date with Evie and Daisy outstanding in holding the ball up and Lianna, Grace and Ruby finding their passes. When Evie broke, her trademark turn of pace created the chance and she made no mistake in hammering the equaliser past the Maidenhead keeper to make it 3-3. With 20 minutes still to play Caversham now looked more the likely to take 3 points.

Daisy fired a shot from distance that looked for the world it would hit the top corner, but it just went wide. Evie broke again, but this time the shot went wide and when Daisy and Grace couldn't quite work out who should take the shot from a well worked opportunity perhaps Caversham's chance to win the game was gone. Meanwhile in an end to end last quarter, Caversham had to be thankful for a goal line clearance and a spectacular diving save from Serena to ensure the point was secured. Overall both teams should be content with a point in what was a highly entertaining game.